The Old Testament is a picture book to help us learn about God and His redemptive plan. In the opening chapters of the book of Exodus, we learn of our bondage to sin and Satan, and God’s mighty plan to save us through Christ our Redeemer!
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Christ – Our Redeemer!
Exodus 1:6-14; 2:23-25
Before children can read, they learn through picture books. I think we probably all learned that way. Remember when you graduated from picture books to chapter books? We start out with books that have a lot of pictures, and just a few words. The Old Testament is like a picture book. God taught the children of Israel, and continues to teach us, through the picture book of the Old Testament.
The New Testament tells us that many of the things contained in the Old Testament were types and shadows of New Testament realities. For example:
The Passover is a picture of Christ – 1 Cor. 5:7
The Rock that brought forth a river of water was a picture of Christ – 1 Cor. 10:4
The Bronze Serpent was a picture of Christ – Number 21:9
The manna was a picture of Christ – John 6:32
All of that should not surprise us because Jesus said the entirety of the Old Testament was about Him.
John 5:39, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me.”
Luke 24:44, “He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
The theme of Genesis is Creation. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” 1:31, “And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.” However, only two chapters later this very good creation of God is ruined by man’s rebellion. Man sinned, and fell into a state of bondage. At that point, God had a choice to make. Either He could all all men to remain in their bondage to sin and guilt, and to justly condemn them to everlasting punishment. Or, He could redeem men out of this state of slavery.
In the Book of Exodus we have the story of a vast body of people who were enslaved and afflicted, and how God moved heaven and earth to set them free and make them His own special possession. You remember how I told you that the Old Testament was a picture book? Well, the book of Exodus is a picture of how God delivers us from the slavery to sin and Satan and makes us His own special treasure!
Whereas the theme of the book of Genesis is Creation, the theme of the book of Exodus is Redemption. To “redeem” is to set free by the payment of a price. The deliverance of the children of Israel from their bondage in Egypt foreshadowed a much greater deliverance. The physical deliverance of Israel pictures our own spiritual deliverance.
This morning we are going to look at four different people, and see what each foreshadowed: Pharoah, Egypt, Israel, and Moses.
1. Pharoah
The Pharoah was the King of Egypt. When Jacob and his family initially settled in Egypt, the Pharoah was kind to him for Joseph’s sake. Joseph had been such a wise and good Prime Minister, that the Pharoah was happy to take care of his large family and provide for them. However, over the course of time, that Pharoah died, and new Pharoahs arose who did not know Joseph. They became alarmed at how the children of Israel were increasing so greatly. He was concerned that in the event of war, the Israelites might align themselves with Egypt’s enemies and fight against them.
His answer was to appoint taskmasters over them (vs. 11). These taskmasters made life miserable for the children of Israel. They afflicted them with hard labor. The children of Israel became slaves, and the taskmasters forced them to labor hard and rigorously to build storage cities for Pharoah.
Pharoah made the lives of the sons of Israel bitter.
Consider the words used in our passage: Afflict – compelled – imposed – afflict – hard – rigorous – bitter.
The Pharoah was an evil, hardened, rebellious, murderous man. The rest of chapter 1 tells us that he ordered that all the male Israelite babies were to be murdered. He commanded that all of the Israelite boys were to be thrown into the Nile river to be drowned.
My friends, in all of this, Pharoah pictures Satan.
a. Satan, like Pharoah is a king. Paul referred to him as the Prince of the power of the air (Eph.2:2), and the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4). Jesus referred to him as the ruler of this world (Jn. 16:11). Satan rules with an iron fist over his subjects. He is an evil ruler.
b. Satan, like Pharoah rules over a kingdom. Every king has a kingdom, and Satan is no exception. He rules over a great host of evil spirits who do his bidding. And not only that, he rules over a great host of human beings. Every person who is not a true disciple of Jesus Christ is part of Satan’s kingdom. Paul tells us in Colossians 1:13, “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” Satan’s kingdom is called “the domain of darkness.” In Acts 26:18, the Lord calls the apostle Paul to go to the Gentiles to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God. Satan has a domain, a dominion in which he rules and keeps his subjects under his thumb.
c. Satan, like Pharoah has enslaved his subjects. Just as the children of Israel were enslaved and afflicted with hard labor, so Satan has enslaved his subjects. Pharoah enslaved the sons of Israel to do his will. Pharoah wanted storage cities, and great pyramids and public works built, so he simply drafted the Israelites into his service to do his will. They became free slave labor for the Pharoah. So too, Satan does the same thing. Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2:26, “and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.” Folks, all of us at one time were held captive to the devil to do his will. He was using us. He was manipulating us get his will accomplished. Satan’s will is for all of us to live in rebellion to God. And he was quite successful at holding us captive to accomplish that will. Paul says “among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” Satan kept us busy fixated on our drugs and alcohol, our houses and cars and toys. He kept us busy with our sexual sins, and deception, and self-centered preoccupation. He appointed his demons as taskmasters that were very good at cracking the whip to get us to do his will. Folks, an unsaved man is not a free man. He is the devil’s slave, period.
d. Satan, like Pharoah is bent on destroying his subjects. In Pharoah’s case, he was bent on murdering all the male born Israelite babies, having them cast into the Nile River. In Satan’s case, he is bent on destroying us by blinding us to the glory of Christ until we die in our sins and perish in hell. You see, he knows he’s on his way to hell, but he’s not content to go alone. He is going to take as many others with him as he possibly can. Jesus said in John 8:44, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.” All those who can murder with hard-hearted cruelty are being used by Satan, like Adolph Hitler, Saddam Hussein, or those who can callously kill their own babies in their womb.
2. Egypt
If Pharoah is a type of Satan, what is Egypt a type of? The world! Egypt was the domain that Pharoah ruled over, and the world is the domain that Satan rules over. Egypt was the sphere over which Satan exercised his dominion. And this world is the sphere over which Satan exercises his dominion.
In 1 John 5:19, John says “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”
Since the world is Satan’s kingdom, it is only right that we must never give it our allegiance. James tells us, “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
In 1 John 2:15-16 we read, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.”
My friends, when God saves you, you are in the world but you are not of the world. You have transferred your allegiance to God’s kingdom.
You see, Satan had no authority anywhere but in Egypt. Satan couldn’t rule in Ethiopia, or Babylon or Philistia. And folks, if you are a child of God, Satan can’t exercise dominion over you. If he is exercising authority in your life, it’s only because you are letting him. But he has no right to rule in your life. That would be like a stranger coming into this church and starting to boss everyone around. Wait a minute! That guy has no right to rule over this church! He’s a stranger here. He’s not a pastor at The Bridge. Likewise, Satan has no right to rule over any but those unregenerate folks in his kingdom.
3. The Children of Israel
Well, if Pharoah is a picture of Satan, and Egypt is a picture of the world, what does the children of Israel foreshadow? They picture us – the children of God! They picture those that will one day be redeemed by Jesus Christ. The sons of Israel foreshadow all of those who are now under Satan’s rule, but will one day be brought under the rule and reign of Jesus Christ. Presently, their lives are bitter. They are slaves. They are in bondage. They are being oppressed and afflicted in order to carry out the will of Satan. But God has plans of mercy for them!
Take a look at Exodus 2:23-25, “Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died. And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God. So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them.”
Notice what the children of Israel did. They sighed, they cried, and they groaned. Notice what God did. He heard, remembered, saw, and took notice.
When did things begin to change for the children of Israel? Only when they recognized their miserable condition and began to cry out to God. Folks, when did things begin to change for us? Only when we realized that it was our sin that was making our life miserable. Only when we were convicted of our sin. Only when we began to long to be delivered from sin. Only when we realized that we couldn’t free ourselves from our sin. A lot of people today don’t realize that. They don’t realize they can’t free themselves from sin. Whenever you meet a person like that tell them, “Oh, you think you can free yourself from your sin. Well, go ahead and give it a try. Just live 24 hours without being selfish. Don’t commit a single thought, word or deed that puts you before others. Go ahead. Try!” They will very quickly realize that they are slaves of sin.
My friends, a person will never be saved, until they come to the same place the children of Israel came to. That person needs to begin to sigh, groan, and cry out to God for deliverance. They need to feel the bondage of their sin. A person that makes a decision for Christ without ever being convicted of sin will likely be a false convert. But the person that feels the lash of the 10 Commandments on his soul, will be in earnest to find a way to be delivered. My friend, is that you? Have you ever been in blood earnest to be delivered from your sin? Have you ever began to sigh, groan, and cry out to God that He would save you? I’m not talking about saying the Sinner’s Prayer. I’m not talking about asking Christ into your heart. I’m not talking about accepting Christ. I’m talking about feeling the weight and guilt of your sins to the point where you must find a Deliverer!
4. Moses
If Pharoah represents Satan, and Egypt represents the world, and the children of Israel represents those that God will save, who does Moses represent? Well, Moses was the man that God chose to bring His people out of bondage to Pharoah to the place where they would walk with and obey God. Moses was the human Deliverer for Israel. Who is the divine Deliverer for the people of God? Jesus Christ, of course!
Well, can we really say that Moses was a type of Christ? Are there any points of resemblance between them? Yes, there are many.
- Both were born at a time when Israel was under foreign domination (Moses – Egyptian bondage and Jesus – Roman bondage)
- Both were supernaturally protected at their birth
- Both spent time in the wilderness before taking on their callings
- Both were rejected by their brethren
- Both dealt with wicked kings
- Both dealt with people that hardened their hearts
- Both had the world offered to themselves
- Both were shepherds
- Both fasted for 40 days
- Both were meek
- Both brought God’s Law (Moses the OT Law, and Jesus the New Commandment)
- Both worked miracles
- Both fed hungry people in a wilderness
- Both provided water for thirsty people
- Both sent out 12 men
- Both were called God’s Servant
- Both were prophets
- Both were the subject of controversies concerning their dead bodies
- Both interceded for their people
- Both appointed 70 men
- Both were sent to free their people from bondage
Conclusion
My friends, what did a person have to do to be set free from the bondage of Egypt? He had to follow Moses. In order to follow Moses, he had to believe that God had sent him. If he truly believed that God had sent Moses, he would obey his commands.
Christ is our Deliverer. He is the One whom God has sent to save His people from their sins. He has come into the world to set us free from Satan’s tyrannical rule. But in order to be saved by Him, you must believe in Him. If you believe in Him, you will obey Him.
Of course, every analogy breaks down at some point, and our analogy between Moses and Christ does also. All Moses could do was lead the people out of Egypt. But Christ does more than Moses ever did. Jesus Christ actually pays the ransom price to set His people free. By His atoning death, He removes our guilt, justifies us before God, washes away the defilement of sin, purchases our adoption, and reconciles us to God.
My friends, are you following Christ as He leads you out of the old life of sin into the new life of holiness? Are you seeing actual transformation in your own life? Are you praying against particular sins, and seeing actual freedom from the power of sin in your life? That is what Jesus Christ can and will do for all who follow Him.
What are those sins that hold you in bondage? Name them. Write them down. Is it selfishness, stingyness, lust, gluttony, anger, pride, love of the praise of man? Then sigh, groan, and cry out to God. God will hear you, remember His covenant, and take notice of your groans, and direct you to Jesus who will lead you out of the old life of sin into a new life of obedience unto God.
We are all like the Israelites. We have come to the New Moses, who is leading us out of Egypt, but we are not in the Promised Land yet. There are still many miles for us to travel. Yes, you have been saved, you have been redeemed from the penalty of sin. Yet, you still struggle with the power of sin. You need to really believe that God can set you free in this life from the power of those sins that beset you. You can truly make progress, and grow in sanctification before the Lord. Believe Christ! Follow Christ! Obey Christ!
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